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Picture
Working It Off in Labor County
by Larry D. Thacker  

​(available here from West Virginia University Press)

Reviewed by Adam Van Winkle

When Cowboy Jamboree published Larry Thacker’s “The Hard Thing” in our special Harry Crews Tribute issue in 2017 I thought I’d love to see a collection from its author.  Wishes come true and Working it Off in Labor County by Larry D. Thacker is now available from West Virginia University Press (“The Hard Thing” is included).

Labor County is an Appalachian community that is a mix of “isolation and paradise” as described in “Riding Shotgun with Dory.”  And, as the title of this 17-tale collection suggests, the characters in these pages are “working it off,” but not in the traditional coal-mining way you might expect in an Appalachian collection. 

In “Hot Ticket” a paid arsonist changes his ways after he is nearly engulfed in his own flames.  With the help of winning lotto ticket, the story’s protagonist Ed sees the light and begins his own tabernacle with hellfire and brimstone.  “The Clown Brothers Eller” follows two brothers selling ice cream from their “wacked-out” van.  “Day of the Dead Diner, Home of Juan D’s Best BBQ” sees Juan D. working meat in a “fifty-five-gallon drum smoker” to set up shop in where many have tried and failed (and died) before—it was once Sam’s Taco Heaven with a police raided Cinco de Mayo MMA fight, then Cool Doggy Dog’s Doghouse which caught fire killing proprietor Emily while making her husband rich from insurance claims.

The title story indeed shows its protagonist, a history professor, “working it off” as he is forced into community service cleaning the very museum he robbed after the Labor County History Society confiscates his civil war memorabilia for exhibit.
In this highly recommended read you will, as the child narrator of “Riding Shotgun with Dory” does, feel like you are “slipping on another world.”

Get this book, read it, treasure it for the collection of oddities, odd balls, and beautiful people it is.

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  • CJ MAGAZINE
  • Current Issue
  • Style & Submit
    • About CJ
  • Books
  • Sheldon Lee Compton
    • Oblivion Angels
    • The Orchard Is Full of Sound (excerpt)
    • Our Lord and Savior Christian Slater
    • Dog With a Rabbit's Head
    • By-blow
    • Until the Going Down of the River
    • The Judas Steer
    • Tooling Up
    • DYSPHORIA (excerpt)
  • Interviews, Reviews, & Presses
    • Blake Johnson's Prodigal: An American Parable
  • Jobbers
    • Big Rig by Shaun Jex
    • A Night Out with Big Ricky by Katy Goforth
    • War Eagle by David Barker
    • True Dreams of Wichita by Shaun Jex
    • Doink the Clown Works Birthday Parties by Michael Chin
    • The Ballad of Ethel Bridges by David P. Barker
    • House Show in Badger County High School Gym by Simon Nagel
    • 288 Miles by David P. Barker
    • Corn Dogs by Shaun Jex
    • Getting Ready + Cowboy by Michael Chin
    • American Dream by Robert Libbey
    • Training Partner by A.A. Rubin
    • Finding the von Erichs by Shaun Jex
    • The Making of Big Sandy by Michael Carter
    • Pot Roast from Vance Godbey's by Mark A. Nobles
    • Abdullah the Butcher in Gotham by Mark A. Nobles
    • PWI by Josh Olsen
  • Harry Crews
  • CJ Issues & Authors
  • Our Father's Lit: Western Pulp